Youtube delivered a bombshell to small youtube channels on the 20th of January, mainly all those with less than 1000 subscribers, who by the 20th of February will be ejected from the Youtube partner programme that amongst several benefits included monetization of videos which in most cases for Youtubers resulted in a token return of typically about $10 per month. So the blow for being ejected from the youtube partner programme is not financial but rather Youtube effectively telling its smaller youtubers to get lost, a your not wanted message as effectively Youtube is now no longer YOUtube, but instead it's Celebtube or Adtube, really just another broadcast channel full of commercialised content full of ads and NOT what YOUtube has been for the past 10 years!
Nevertheless, Youtube's announcement galvanised Youtubers to try and meet the new Youtube rules, by trying to get subscribers, by basically asking other youtubers to subscribe to their channel in exchange for subscribing to theirs which brings us to the FREE Youtube subscriber service websites such as YTpals.com, Subpals.com and Submenow.com amongst about a dozen such sites.
The free youtube subscriber sites work by basically offering 1 free subscriber for every 2 subscribes made to other youtube channels through their sites. The sites then sell on the extra subscribes to paying customers. So if one signed upto 100 channels, then one would expect to receive 50 subscribes in return.
But just how reliable are these sites in delivering on their promises, do you actually get 1 for 2 or is the ratio far off then their sales pitch?
To find out we TESTED the 3 services mentioned, to see what would happen if we subscribed to hundreds of channels through their sites over a full 7 days, with the specifications of what the services demanded and promised being:
Submenow.com : Subscribe and like 20 or 30 channels to get 10 or 15 in return over the next 24 hours. One use per 24 hours.
YTPals.com : Subscribe 20 and like 40 and get 20 subscribes in the next 12 hours. Can use this service twice in 24 hours.
Subpals.com : Subscribe 20 and like 40 and get 20 subscribes in the next 24 hours. Can use this service twice in 24 hours, and virtually identical to YTPal.coms
At the start of this test for free subscribers, the test channel had 821 subscribers, and if we made the estimated subscriptions of 100 a day we should see about 350 subscribers added to the count to take the channel to around 1170 subscribers. Here's what actually happened:
Subbed Running total Subs expected Channel Sub Count Actual Subs Gained Subs Deficit Subs % of expected received
Results:
Starting subscriber count was 821. Subscriptions made to 644 channels and so expectations were to receive about 320 subscribes in return.
Actual number of subscribes received is 112, a short fall of 210 subscribers or about 1/3rd the expected number, thus bringing the total count to 933 on the 10th day down from an observed peak of 956 subscribers.
So whilst the free youtube subscriber services did deliver subscribers, however the actual number received is nowhere near that which they purport to deliver, only 1/3rd. Which means if you subscribe to 1000 channels you will likely receive 175 subscribes instead of the expected 500, which is a huge difference.
Our experience of using the services showed erratic behaviour in subscription count, as they would rise and fall, which implied that subscribers were subscribing through these sites but then un subscribing a few hours later, purportedly risking getting banned by the sites. Digging deeper reveals why this may be happening is because Youtube limits the number of channels most small channels can subscribe to 2000. So it clearly means that those who continue to use these sites to gain free exchange subscribers after reaching 2000 have to keep un subscribing from channels which is the Achilles heel for these services, as the quality of subscribers they are offering to their free users at least is very poor and unreliable as the continuing erosion in subscriber count illustrates.
So yes, whilst you can gain free subscribers, the number and quality of subscribes received tends to be very poor. Which means if for instance one is thinking one can go from 100 to 1000 subscribers through use of these services, then that is just not going to happen as you will hit your maximum channels number long before you even get to 500 let alone the 1000 target.
Furthermore you also end up ruining your youtube experience, as your home page is now clogged up with garbage that you have no intension's of ever watching as a consequence all of your hundreds of subscribes and likes.
Now remember this test was for use of their FREE subscribers service.
source: By Nadeem Walayat
